Select Local Merchants

When even the most inexperienced chef visits Dinners Done Right's spacious kitchen, she can whip up 12 meals in two hours; gourmet ones?from apricot-glazed pork roast to chicken fajitas. It all sounds a bit unrealistic, until you consider the hefty head start visitors have on the typical from-scratch cook, who typically only has scratch. The building blocks for each of their meals await?freshly pre-cut and prepped?at stations throughout the company's kitchen. With the assistance of a hostess, easy-to-follow instructions, and all the necessary kitchen tools, visitors simply combine the ingredients into freezer-ready containers, first seasoning them to taste with a host of spices and herbs. When customers get home, they can freeze their handiwork for a future quick and easy meal or bake, grill, or slow-cook it to impress dinner guests on the spot.

The butchers at AA Meats foster an old-school atmosphere in their meat market, serving up quality cuts the same way they have since 1955. Their selection encompasses traditional cuts such as flat iron steaks, boneless chicken thighs, and pork chops as well as more exotic items including ostrich patties, frog legs, and alligator. On top of their fresh cuts, the shop also boasts several types of jerky, pepperoni, and cheese to toss on burgers. Aside from buying a meat inspector costume, the best way to sample the shop's smorgasbord is with one of its locker packs, which range from simple breakfast packs all the way up to a 100-pound assortment made up of more than a dozen different types of meat.

Tahoma Market Car Wash's brand-new facility restores road-weary wagons to their former glory using fast, modern equipment. Within a matter of minutes, automated washers buff wheels, shine tires, and flush undercarriages to prevent rust and remove barnacles. An ultrasealer forms a protective vehicular shield, and a free-to-use professional-grade vacuum allows customers to degunk their cars’ interiors by hand after the automatic wash. Making earth friendliness a top priority, Tahoma Market Car Wash recycles much of its water, uses only gentle Envirosoft foam for polishing up rides, and regularly treats stressed-out sea turtles to shiatsu massages.

Combining Old World traditions with New World sensibilities, the butchers at Proper British Bacon & Meats pull from the freshest sources they can find as they create faithful renditions of the United Kingdom's iconic meats. They work with free-range, hormone- and antibiotic-free pork, grass-fed Nebraska beef, and eggs from chickens that they've raised on their own farm. From there, they proceed to smoke their own jerky, grind beef using actual steak instead of leftover trimmings, and age steaks without resorting to any mechanical processes. These carefully prepared cuts are then used to make an eclectic assortment of cured as well as nitrate-free and low-preservative meats?many inspired by savory snacks from across the Atlantic.
Smoked British bacon, for example, remains a perennial favorite, with a relatively lean flavor and texture compared to its American counterpart (which the store also sells, of course). Other unmistakably British goods?such as steak and kidney pies and haggis made with lamb, beef, herbs, onions, and stone-ground oats?are also available by the pound. The full selection features more than 500 different choices, including 18 bacons made in-house, more than 55 different varieties of handmade sausages, and an assortment of imported English cheeses. To help hunters who've won the day's staring contests against wild game, the butchers also lend their expertise to processing everything from deer and elk to caribou and big-horn sheep. Aside from food, Proper British Bacon & Meats is also a dealer for the Big Green Egg ceramic cooker.

The shelves of Northshore Quality Produce overflow with all the in-season fixings a chef would need to create a healthy meal. Most of the potatoes, apples, tomatoes, and other fruits and veggies come straight from local farms, eliminating guesswork or French accents. In addition to the produce, the shop stocks refrigerated items—such as milk, juice, and salsa—and shelved foodstuffs, such as pita chips and crackers.

Decades ago, brothers Bob and Earl Green founded a business dealing in red meat and seafood on April Fools' Day. Later, on another fateful April 1, they passed the shop to Bob's son and daughter-in-law, and today, more than 50 years since its 1958 opening, B & E Meats and Seafood still cuts, smokes, and marinates prime carnivorous fare at four locations.
Beef raised in Washington and Oregon comes to B & E Meats in three variants: natural, traditional, and grass-fed on the grounds of Harlow Ranch. The staff preps T-bones and tenderloins alongside signature kalbi beef ribs, whose soy, ginger, garlic, and sesame-oil marinade evokes tropical barbecues. Such meticulous seasoning is par for the course?the staffers smoke their beef jerky for up to six hours with alder and cherry-wood chips to preserve rustic flavor, and they cover pork roasts in sea salt before wrapping them in banana leaves. Their smoked candy salmon also boasts a tantalizing mix of sweet and salty notes, and corned beef comes traditionally cured for St. Patrick's Day.
Freezer variety packs tempt those who can?t decide on one meal with 25?100 pounds of cuts and goodies, which include steaks, roasts, ground beef, and bacon. In the interest of convenience, the store provides cooking instructions for many of its popular dishes, as well as game-processing services that package meats by weight.